O.C. Tanner: A gem of a building

A man and a building. A passion for beauty and a commitment to giving back. A flagship store and a landmark preserved. That's the story you find at 15 S. State in downtown Salt Lake City.

It begins in 1904, when Obert C. Tanner was born in Farmington, the youngest of 10 children of Joseph and Annie Clark Tanner.

It continues in 1905, when Salt Lake City opened a public library near the corner of South Temple and State Street. One of the finest buildings of its day, the library was built of oolite sandstone quarried in Ephraim and financed by mining entrepreneur John Quackenbos Packard.

One wonders if young Tanner ever visited the library. Maybe he stopped by in the late 1920s when he was a student at the University of Utah. Probably he never guessed that at a far distant point in the future, that building and his name would become so impressively linked.

Tanner went on to make his living in the jewelry business, starting with class rings and graduation pins and finally extending into the finest of diamonds and gems. In 1976, he opened his first retail jewelry store in downtown Salt Lake City.

Throughout his career, he became known not only for love of beautiful things and his philanthropy (many a fountain was donated by his company), but also as former Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson once said, "his respect, tradition and integrity."

The Salt Lake City Library, meanwhile, was busy outgrowing the elegant building that housed it, and in the early 1960s, it moved to a new home across from the City-County Building. In 1965, the old library became the Hansen Planetarium, funded by Beatrice M. Hansen from the estate of her deceased husband, George.

But by 2003, that, too, had outgrown the facility, and the new Clark Planetarium was built at the Gateway.

Two referendums to provide funding for the empty building were voted down, perhaps in part because the city had no clear plan or purpose for it.

"That's where we came in," says Curtis Bennett, vice president of retail sales for the O.C. Tanner Co. "When we moved out of the Zion Bank Building, we began looking everywhere for a new downtown home." Temporarily housed in the Eagle Gate Plaza, they determined that the old library/planetarium building would be perfect for what they wanted.

"We approached the city and had to go through the bidding process," Bennett says, but the result is that after a $24 million renovation and restoration process, the building will become the flagship store of O.C. Tanner. The grand opening will be held Sept. 8 and 9, the first completed building of the massive Downtown Rising project.

Obert C. Tanner always wanted to create "the most beautiful jewelry store in America," says Bennett. "With this store, we think we have it."